Through Heaven's Eyes
by Coriana
Summary: He looked like all the other ones, but yet he felt different. / Aerith's friendship with Tseng, starting in her childhood.
1. Friendship

Title:

Word Count: 354

Characters: Aerith Gainsborough & Tseng

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><p>He looked like all the other ones, but yet he felt different.<p>

Aerith peeked around the side of the building. The man was crouched to the ground; he looked startled when she came around the corner, with her big, eight-year-old green eyes and red braid tossed over her shoulder.

"Are you looking for something?" She asked, her hands gesturing to his crouched form.

"Oh…uh. My pen. I dropped my pen."

Aerith dropped to her knees and searched for a few seconds. The man started to say that it wasn't necessary, but then she stood, holding a pen.

"Is this it?" She asked.

The man's mouth hung open, as if he was shocked that there was even a pen involved. He stood and took the pen from her. He placed the pen in his jacket pocket, next to another pen—no doubt the original one that had never been lost.

"Thank you." He said anyway.

Aerith shook her head at him.

"Is something wrong?" He said.

"You're different." She said. "And funny."

The man looked mystified. "Funny? I have many co-workers that would disagree that my name and 'funny' should be in the same sentence."

Aerith laughed, "You're funny because you're too serious about life." She told him.

"Young lady, if I wasn't serious about my job then I wouldn't have one."

"But I wasn't talking about your job—I was talking about life."

The tall man grew silent, his crisp black suit rustled as he shuffled his feet. A young child's eyes shouldn't be so intense.

"Aerith! Aerith! Where did you go?"

"Coming, mama!" Aerith waved to the man and ran off. The man followed her out of the alleyway.

Elmyra looked at the man skeptically. She had never seen this one before. Normally the guards changed every few months, but this one seemed young. She didn't know his name was but she normally would find out eventually.

Besides, Aerith had spoken to this one; she had never done that before. She wondered what could be in store for this fellow.

She nodded to him, he nodded back, and then she led Aerith inside.


	2. Trouble Lurking

Word Count: 293

Prompt 25: Trouble Lurking…

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><p>"Hellooooo?" Aerith said, coming up to the black, hoodless car that Tseng was in, talking on the phone.<p>

He held up his hand to silence her, to which she responded with crossing her arms and a pout. She waited impatiently for Tseng to finish on the phone. Though, of course, she got too bored and wandered off to the other side of the car, the passenger's side.

Even on the phone with Reno yelling in his ear, he could hear her fiddling with something. He didn't give it much thought until the 'something' made a loud snapping noise. There was silence from where Aerith was standing. She pushed herself onto her tip-toes and peeked over the side of his passenger door. Tseng glared at her, but couldn't say anything due to the phone.

She sunk back down and a kind of clicking sound started to echo. Perhaps she was trying to stick whatever back on.

Tseng thought it might be the door handle. How on earth could she have broken off the door handle?  
>Tseng tried to wrap up the phone conversation, but by the time he accomplished that, Aerith had already come back to his side of the car, looking mournful. She didn't hold anything in her hands, though.<p>

When he finally closed the phone, they just stared at each other. One too frightened to tell someone about something, and one too frightened to ask.

"Tseng," She started, "I—"

"Aerith! Dinnertime!" Elmyra called.

Aerith's eyes let up. "I have to go, Tseng! Bye!" She bolted down the street before he could protest.

Tseng willed himself to get out of the car, but it did take about 5 minutes. When he finally reached the passengers door—

Yep. It had been the door-handle.


	3. Broken Glass

Title: Broken Glass

Prompt 62: A Cracked, Glass Statue

Word Count: 375

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><p>"Tseng! Tseng! Look what I found!" Aerith came running up to Tseng, who was sitting on the park bench, catching up on his paperwork.<p>

Aerith carried a small statue made out of pale blue glass. The thing was finely cut with intricate details. It was a small statuette of a woman with a long dress and regal face.

The only problem with the statue was that there was fine, bubbled cracks running all through her dress, and a severe fracture lined her face; like a cut of a blade marring her beautiful features.

"That's very nice, Aerith." Tseng said, "Except that she's broken."

Aerith looked at the doll again, and in her eyes it looked like it was the first time that she noticed the flaws.

"If you want a doll you can play with, I can get you one for your birthday. If you like."

The dilemma was that Aerith wasn't real big on playing around with dolls and such. Things that Tseng had given her had often gotten passed on to others. Aerith enjoyed helping her mother cook meals for families, or follow Tseng around on his sector 5 errands. Her new favorite thing to do in life was to care for the flowers in the abandoned church.

"No thank you," She said, responding to Tseng's question. "This one will do. I think she'll like to see the flowers. Won't you, Infalna?" Aerith asked the statue as she walked away, holding her carefully.

Tseng was concerned with Aerith's using her real mother's name, but there wasn't much that could be done. That thought was a small anxiety compared to Tseng's other worry, which was about when he would be taken off duty of watching Aerith; there had already been rumors that he was going to be promoted.

She was turning ten next month, and he had her birthday marked on his calendar. He wasn't sure why he was so worried about being taken off Watch, it's not like it would be hard to visit the child.

Tseng liked to fancy the thought of being able to visit her whenever he liked, but he also knew in his heart that promotions meant more labor and less time to play around.

It also meant more paperwork.


	4. Earrings

"But…I don't like needles…"

Tseng sighed; they stood outside the little store. She had acted all excited when he had informed her of his present to her, but now that they were outside the store, little Aerith was having second thoughts…

"It's not going to hurt, Aerith." Tseng said, "It's not going to be any worse then when you'd scratch yourself or stub your toe."

"But…but stubbing your toe hurts!" Aerith said, she sidestepped and hid around Tseng's legs, so she couldn't see the store.

"Come on, Aerith." He said, entering the store. She stayed on the sidewalk for about thirty seconds, then Tseng was beginning to worry that she really wasn't going to come in.

Then she came in, looking around with wild eyes, when she located Tseng, she ran to him and hid behind his legs again.

"Hi, can I help you?" A pretty brunette stood behind the counter.

"Yes, this little girl wanted to get her ears pierced for her birthday." Tseng said.

"Well, happy birthday!" The woman said, coming around the counter and dropping to her knees, "And how old are you today?"

"Eleven." Aerith said.

"You're awfully brave for getting your ears pierced so young. Would you like to go sit in that chair over there?"

Aerith walked slowly, Tseng had to hoist her up so she could get into the chair.

"Okay," The woman said, "which one do you like better?" She held up a case of small silver and gold earrings. Aerith pointed to a pair of silver ones.

"Good choice." The woman said, giving Tseng a wink. "Your daughter?" She said casually.

"No."

"Oh, really?" She smiled again, then walked back behind the counter to get the little machine.

"Does it hurt?" Aerith said, her green eyes getting wide again.

"Not at all. See, look." The woman showed her earring-adorned ears, "I'm a wimp when it comes to pain, so believe me when I say that it doesn't hurt at all."  
>Aerith took a deep breath, then she closed her eyes.<p>

The woman marked her ears with a little red pen, then set the machine. Aerith pulled her head away as the woman neared.

"Honey, you need to sit still." She reached for Aerith again.

This time, Aerith leaned to the right.

"Come on." The woman grabbed at Aerith's ear.

Aerith screamed and bolted out of the chair, hiding behind Tseng's legs.

He smiled and said, "She's a little nervous."

"I noticed." The woman said, a little more irritated.

Tseng lifted Aerith up and set her back into the chair, then put a hand on her shoulder for comfort. The woman placed the machine on Aerith's ear.

Aerith held her breath, the woman punched the hole, and Aerith still held her breath.

"Aerith," Tseng said, "Breathe."

She let out a whoosh of breath. The woman punched the other hole.

"See?" The brunette said, "All done."

Aerith grimaced. "Why would anyone want to do that more then once?" She said.

The woman gave Aerith a forced smile, "I don't think anyone's going to want to give you another one, so don't worry about it."

Aerith seemed to realize the insult and pouted.

When Tseng paid the woman, Aerith slipped out of the chair, then looked into the small mirror. As the brunette tried to make small talk with Tseng, he was watching Aerith sweep her hair into the front of her ears, so you couldn't see the earrings.

Tseng finally broke off the conversation with the frustrated woman and left with Aerith. The little girl skipped by his feet.

"Why did you do that to your hair? Do you not like them?"

"I like them, and I think I'll keep them, but not in my ears."

Tseng had to process that, then, "You took them out?"

"No one will ever be able to tell if I keep my hair like this."

Tseng rolled his eyes and just smiled.

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><p>Title: Earrings<p>

Word Count: 655

Notes: I could never tell if Aerith wore earrings due to the way she wore her hair…


End file.
